Karen Gantz Zahler's birthday luncheon April 7, 2009

New York City, April 7, 2009. Karen Gantz Zahler celebrated her birthday with style and grace at her beautiful 5th Avenue apartment overlooking Central Park. About 30 lovely and accomplished women attended to help Karen celebrate and to hear what Dr. Samuel Gandy, internationally recognized expert on Alzheimer's Disease and Dr. Jane Martin, assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry had to say.

There was a lot of love in the room for Karen. Friends shared stories about her charitable endeavors with many organizations as well as stories about how she helped them with their own lives and ambitions. Some stories were happy, some sad but the message conveyed by all was that Karen is a devoted friend who has touched many people's lives. Her friends also spoke about Karen’s celebrity clients of Floyd Abrams, Kathleen Turner, Alec Baldwin and Nancy Friday. Today Show host Janice Lieberman, one of her authors, whose new book How to Shop for a Husband comes out next week, attended and spoke about Karen’s amazing determination as a lawyer and literary agent. Eric Zahler, Karen's loving husband and co-founder of Sagamore Capital, spoke of how they met 28 years ago. He complemented her many times over saying that she is a wonderful mother to two incredible teenagers who share her great values and that anyone blessed with knowing Karen is a beneficiary of a richer life simply for knowing her. Some of the women who attended included Susan Lipton, former investment who has headed the Jewish Museum and Harvard Law School Alumni Association, and many other institutions, and Emily Rose, professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Karen has a genuine smile and warmness about her that embraces people. Friends joked about how Karen is known to answer their emails and calls no matter what hour of the day or night. Someone said that she exuberates a tremendous energy and has a tremendous passion for living.

Karen focused on the connectedness of friendship as one of the important elements for strengthening one’s memory. The friends in the room were a testament to her in that regard. She quoted Cervantes: “Tell me what company thou keepst, and I’ll tell thee what thou art,” She said it was a privilege to be in her friends’ company.

Having Dr. Gandy as a guest speaker was also a wonderful addition to her birthday celebration. According to the upcoming June Issue of GQ Magazine, Dr. Gandy is called the "rock star of science" and is featured in the Geoffrey Beene fashion spread. Dr. Gandy is a Mount Sinai Medical Center Professor on Alzheimer's Research. The Mount Sinai Center for Brain Health is conducting cutting-edge trials on Alzheimer’s disease and making enormous progress and new treatments are on the horizon.

Dr. Gandy is the program director of a 15-year National Institute of Aging-funded program on Alzheimer's drug discovery. In addition, he is the director of the Farber Institute of Neurosciences, which is conducting three of the first anti-amyloid clinical trials in North America. He is also the chairman of the National Medical and Scientific Advisory Council for the Alzheimer's Association.

Dr. Jane Martin is an assistant clinical professor in the department of psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center and co-director of Neuropsychology training. She is a founder of The Women's Initiative at Mt. Sinai and teaches in the memory enhancement program, a wellness program designed for older adults.

Many of the women in attendance were the best and brightest in New York: productive, professional women who do an enormous amount for society, This group of the “worried well” are all highly functioning, but got tips from Dr. Jane Martin on how to keep their memory sharp: playing cards, connecting with people, learning a new language, and not to multi-task as much as when they were younger. Dr. Martin also recommended a Mediterranean diet consisting of grains, leafy vegetables, and fish, which is what Karen served at her luncheon. She also gave everyone in the room a memory test and taught people to put items in categories in order to remember things better. All these high-functioning women were thrilled to get tips in being productive longer and have a heightened concern to continue being cognitively sharp.

“Memory is an important element of personal identity and when that starts to diminish, your sense of self diminishes,” said Karen. “As people live longer and longer, and fifty percent of those over eighty-five have no significant memory or physical disability, it is increasingly important to do as much as we can to fortify our memories while we are unimpaired. I became aware of Mt. Sinai’s Center for Brain Health and the cutting edge research being done to understand and treat memory, and I wanted to share this new discovery with my friends. There is so much we all can do to strengthen our attention and memory.”

Karen's birthday celebration was unique and special. A fitting party for quite a lady. It was a pleasure to be amongst the guests. We at Black Tie Magazine and The Herbert Collection wish you a very happy birthday year with many blessings Karen.